Department of Entomology

Current Entomology News

• A team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside recently rediscovered the rarest species of bumblebee in the United States, last seen in 1956, living in the White Mountains of south-central New Mexico. See More.
• Why flies love beer.  Anupama Dahanukar, Assistant Professor of Entomology, has discovered the key ingredient, as reported in Nature Neuroscience...see more.  More on the story, click here.
• Rapid Evolution Within Single Crop-growing Season Increases Insect Pest Numbers. See More
• An entomologist couple, Dr. Mark Hoddle and Christina Hoddle,  at UC Riverside travel the world searching for parasites to counter imported pests. Hunting for good bugs to fight bad. See more
• We are pleased to announce that Beth Grafton-Cardwell has agreed to lead the Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases initiative.
• For his outstanding contributions to entomology, Bradley Mullens, has been elected a fellow of the prestigious Entomological Society of America (ESA), the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Congratulations! See more
• New Findings by UC Riverside Scientists Hold Big Promise for Fight Against Mosquito-borne Diseases. See more
• CBS News discusses Dr. Mark Hoddle's work on red palm weevil. See more.
• Also, please join us in congratulating Tim Paine and Joe Morse for their recent awards from the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America. Tim received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching, and Joe received the Award for Excellence in Integrated Pest Management.
• The National Research Council ranked UC Riverside's doctoral program exceptionally high and among the very best in the United States. Click here to learn more about how UCR and the Department fared in these important national rankings.

• Thomas Miller and Bob Krieger are among the ten researchers at the University of California, Riverside named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Read more.

• Alexander Raikhel's lab has identified a key microRNA in female dengue - spreading mosquitoes that when deactivated disrupts the mosquito's blood digestion and egg development - a discovery that could help control the spread of not only dengue and yellow fever, but potentially all vector-borne diseases. See more...
• The recent sequencing and mapping of the Culex mosquito genome is the latest in a long line of research that has established UC Riverside's entomology program as one of the best in the world. See more...

• UC Riverside geneticists have sequenced the genome of Culex quinquefasciatus, the mosquito that spreads West Nile virus.  With the availability of this sequence, scientists can now target specific Culex genes that are involved in the transmission of West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis, lymphatic filariasis and other diseases spread by the Culex group of mosquitoes. See more...
• On September 17th Professor Ring Cardé presented the inaugural lecture in the Jerry B. Graves Distinguished Seminar Series in the Department of Entomology at Louisiana State University.  The topic of his talk was "Of moths and mosquitoes: parallel strategies for navigation to an odor-linked resource."

• Thomas Miller, Professor of Entomology, is one of only ten new fellows elected this year to the Entomological Society of America. See more…

• Congratulations to Jennifer Henke!  Jennifer has been selected as the recipient of the IOBC/NRS Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award for 2010.

• Douglas Yanega, Senior Museum Scientist, received a three-year NSF grant to digitize and consolidate nearly one million specimen records from ten bee collections across the United States. See more…

• Mark Hoddle is helping with surveys for avocado seed moth in Peru.  See more…

• Brian Federici received a five-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases See more…

• 2010 - ESA IPM Team Awards - Michael Rust, Les Greenberg, John Klotz (Emeritus), and Donald Reierson. Elizabeth Grafton-Cardwell was awarded the 2010 ESA Recognition Award in Entomology.
• Ms. Kim Hung receives a highly competitive NSF graduate research fellowship, more details.
• Chris Wheeler in Ring Carde's lab received Honorable Mention on his NSF graduate research fellowship application.
• Thomas Miller, an internationally recognized expert at the University of California, Riverside on insect physiology, toxicology, and genetics, has been chosen by the U.S. Department of State to receive a 2010-2011 Jefferson Science Fellowship. Miller is one of only ten persons selected for the fellowships this year. More...
• A research team led by Mark Hoddle, recently assessed the biocontrol of the cottony cushion scale in the Galapagos Islands, and concluded that the project was a major success. details
• Robert Luck, a professor of entomology at the University of
  California, Riverside, has received the California Citrus Quality Council's prestigious Albert G. Salter Memorial Award for "his enthusiastic and innovative applied research in citrus entomology."

• The Department of Entomology will hosted the 19th annual Urban Pest Management Conference.
• Bert Hölldobler, one of the world’s great ant experts and Foundation Professor of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, gave the 2010 Alfred M. Boyce Lecture.
• For his outstanding contributions to the discipline of chemical ecology, Ring Cardé, a distinguished professor..... details

• Three entomologists at the University of California, Riverside have won awards from the Entomological Society of America (ESA).......
• Distinguished Professors Brian Federici and Alexander Raikhel selected as Fellows of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) details
• Assistant Professor Anand Ray and Graduate Student Stephanie Turner have published a paper in Nature (Advance online, Aug. 26). Applications of the research include prevention of West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases details (also see Scientific American, NY Times, Press-Enterprise, Science News, Boston Globe, Health News, OHS, and The Hindu )
• Professor Joseph Morse discusses re-emergence of Mediterranean fruit fly. details...
• Associate Professor Greg Walker researches insect vectoring details...
• Professor Mike Rust briefs the 22nd World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP), Calgary, Canada on the efficacy of imidacloprid against fleas details...
• Departmental alumus interviewed about medical maggots details...